2. Sydney to several remote pubs, Australia

SMT: Helicopter

The world’s only helicopter pub crawl we know of departs from Sydney, soaring above the city’s famed harbor and touching down at several historic drinking holes spread across the beautiful (but curiously out-of-focus by mid-afternoon) New South Wales countryside.

3. Inca Trail, Peru

SMT: Foot

The groundwork for South America’s legendary cloud-forest, Andes-hugging, thin-air trek to Machu Picchu was laid over 500 years ago.

And the payoff at the end of your four-day, 43-kilometer hike — gazing upon the legendary “Lost City of the Incas” with your own eyes — remains as life-enhancing today as it was for pre-Columbian royalty.

4. Cape Town to Cairo, Africa

SMT: Your wits and 10 weeks minimum

Cape-to-Cairo. It just rolls off the tongue. Launching an independent road trip the length of Africa, on the other hand — 17,000 kilometers and 11 countries (or so), featuring Victoria Falls, Mt. Kilimanjaro, lion and Whirling Dervish encounters, etc. — is a different story.

We can’t wait to hear about it.

5. Adelaide to Darwin, Australia

SMT: Greyhound Bus

It’s been called “the longest bus ride in the world” — a debatable factoid you won’t bother disputing after rolling for at least 42 hours (plus a six-hour layover in Alice Springs) along the planet’s most desolate, Greyhound-friendly continental midsection.

The draw: spectacular side trip opportunities en route, from spectacular Katherine Gorge and Ayers Rock to an underground bunker hotel room in Coober Pedy. All cheaply chauffeured by a trusty Greyhound driver who has to stay awake for you.

7. Amritsar, India to ‘Shangri-La’

What’s really stopping you from touring India’s Himalayan foothills to the border of Tibet on a 500cc Royal Enfield Bullet? … Maps? A guide and team of on-call mechanics? A Royal Enfield motorcycle?

All of that’s included in TransIndus’s 15-day Trans-Himalayan Odyssey — hairpinning through mountain passes, sweeping valleys and some of the most stunning alpine scenery you’ll ever witness astride India’s version of a Harley.

9. Ground floor to 89th floor, Taipei 101, Taiwan

SMT: Elevator

We love the vertigo-inducing, glass-fronted ride up Toronto’s CN Tower too. But for the sheer pleasure of blasting above the stifling masses in a steel box that “pushes the limits of people-mover technology,” according to Popular Mechanics, nothing quite matches an elevator trip up Taiwan’s Taipei 101.

No longer the world’s tallest building and fastest elevator, it remains the greatest vertical road to instant urban tranquility. One way ticket to the 89th-floor observation deck, please.

10. C2C Trail, England

Northern England’s Coast-To-Coast Trail (a.k.a. the “C2C”) stretches 192 miles from the Irish Sea at St. Bee’s to the North Sea at Robin Hood’s Bay, rambling through England’s famed Lake District and other picturesque settings with kindly folk and pubs.

Yes, you’ll be walking across an entire country. No, it shouldn’t wreck your knees or take more than a couple of weeks.

12. Khan Khentii, Mongolia

SMT: Yak

There’s only one place in the world to experience a Mongolian Yak Safari — and we all know where that is.

Peregrine’s 14-day intro to Mongolia starts in Ulaanbaatar and features a three-day trek into the vast Khan Kentii wilderness with nothing but a yak-driven support vehicle, some local herdsman and your emerging ancient nomadic spirit.

14. Rideau Canal, Ottawa

SMT: Ice skates

Come winter, Canada’s most famous recreational waterway (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) turns into a skateway — and the world’s largest ice rink.

Hardy Canadian locals commute to work this way, along a maintained section that runs for nearly eight miles through downtown Ottawa. Yes, you can rent skates at the canal, hold a black briefcase and pretend you’re doing the same.

16. Naples to Amalfi, Italy

Great roads are even better if someone else is doing the driving.

SMT: Taxi

Why deal with Italian traffic while trying to sneak breathtaking seaside views along the Amalfi Coast when you can just hop into the back of a taxi driven by an experienced local who can handle this winding, precipitous road while yelling at his wife on the phone while playing tour guide and gazing admiringly out at Capri himself?

17. Milford Track, New Zealand

SMT: Foot

“The finest walk in the world.” A few hikes around the globe have been granted this status, including New Zealand’s signature 53.5-kilometer foot path through the heart of Fiordland National Park — which might just get the nod for its spectacular South Island imagery and trekker-friendly lodging along the 5-day route.

Guided tours can be booked through the Milford Track’s licensed operator, Ultimate Hikes.

18. Deadwood to Custer State Park, South Dakota

SMT: Harley Davidson

Home to the famous annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, South Dakota’s signature rider rite of passage is the Black Hills Run (a.k.a. “the steeplechase for bikes”) — a rolling, winding, wildly scenic journey from the former gold boomtown of Deadwood to the bison-rich fields of Custer State Park, with a pullout at Mount Rushmore.

19. Tashkent Metro, Uzbekistan

SMT: Subway train

The Moscow and Paris subways get plenty of attention. May we now acquaint you with Uzbekistan’s pin-up subterranean rapid transit system?

The Tashkent Metro is one of only two subways in Central Asia. This one’s not just nicer than Kazakhstan’s, but is one of the world’s most unsung, ornate subways — featuring 29 uniquely-designed stations of glass, granite, marble and carved alabaster, designed by prominent artists and architects.

22. Esquel to Ingeniero Jacobacci, Patagonia, Chile

SMT: Train

Calling any 1930s-era steam locomotive that maxes out at about 45 kilometers per hour on even older narrow-gauge track an express may be a stretch.

Board La Trochita (a.k.a. The Patagonian Express) and the thinking is, why would you want to go any faster through 400 kilometers of haunting scenery at the bottom of the world in an old, rattling wooden train car?

23. Grenada to Cape Vincent, Caribbean

SMT: Foot, taxi, ferry, mailboat

Grab a taxi in Grenada, board the Osprey Express for the 90-minute ferry to Carriacou. Run to the mailboat docks parked at the Government Dock in Hillsborough to get you across the border to Union island.

From there, catch an early morning ferry to Bequia and then board the Bequia Express to St. Vincent.

Who’d have thought the best inter-island road trip in the outer-Caribbean would be this easy?

24. Big Sur and the rest of California Highway 1

SMT: RV

California’s most magnificent patch of coast, Big Sur, winds for 93 gorgeous, perilous miles between San Simeon (Hearst Castle) and Carmel — summoning great waves of joy, awe and car-sickness all in one movable sitting.

Getting above it all in a motor home lets you make use of over a dozen federal, state and private campgrounds hiding along the Big Sur coast and experience the rest of California’s spectacular, paved edge along Highway 1.

25. Athens to Marathon, Greece

SMT: Jogging shoes

More than 550 official marathon races in 69 countries on all seven continents are held annually around the world — but the first one was run 2,500 years ago by a single Greek herald named Pheidippides who, legend has it, raced from Marathon to Athens (roughly 26 miles) in 490 BC to announce victory over Persia before dying on the spot.

Train responsibly and you’ll fare better on this hilly route that attracts thousands of bibbed heralds running from Marathonas to Athens’ Panathinaikon Stadium in the annual Athens Classic Marathon — held every fall.

26. Turbo, Colombia to Buenos Aires, Argentina

If there’s an easyway to drive the length of South America, it’s along the Pan-American Highway — a.k.a. “the world’s longest motorable road” (which, technically, begins in Alaska).

Skipping the North and Central America part should make journeying through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina a relative breeze. If you’re in Suriname, you made a wrong turn.

27. Calgary to Banff, Alberta

SMT: Car

The straightest shot from Calgary to Banff National Park is along the four-lane Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1). But this is a road trip, right?

Opting for the alternate, two-lane route, Highway 1A, a picture-perfect, two-laner snaking along the quiet Bow river leads to the same pinch-me Canadian Rocky Mountain scenery at a far more enjoyable pace with some quaint small towns thrown in and a drive-by past the very spot where “Legends of the Fall” was filmed.

The moral of this story: wherever you are, don’t snub that “A” route.

28. Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

SMT: Reliable car with Mexican auto insurance

Driving 1,700 kilometers of Highway 1 in Mexico’s Baja Peninsula at 80 kilometers per hour from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas will take you 21.25 hours if you don’t stop.

But you will stop. Possibly to change a tire or placate a bored 18-year-old Federale at a checkpoint in the middle of nowhere.

Or, mainly, just to marvel upon one of the wildest desert-meets-seascapes on earth. Just don’t forget that insurance.

30. Anywhere on Antarctica

SMT: Double-hulled ship, Zodiac boat and (important) foot

Reaching the huge tabular icebergs, frenzies of wild penguins and bleached, otherworldly shores of Antarctica may be the best approximation to interplanetary travel on earth — but it ain’t a real journey unless you actually set foot on the place.

The majority of cruise ship visitors admire the White Continent from a distance without ever leaving their ship.

For an up-close, intimate journey that lets you actually stand on Antarctica instead of squint at it from the Lido Deck, sign on with an IAATO-member vessel specializing in leading smaller groups and offering multiple shore excursions.

31. Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

Hippos, zebras and just out of sight a bunch of mesmerized tourists.

SMT: Horse

Witnessing Africa’s animals in a Land Rover is thrilling. Interacting with them on horseback — galloping alongside zebra, giraffe and antelope — on a riding safari with moving camps and local Masai tribesmen in the mix is a whole other deal.

Equitours’ flagship tour, traversing Kenya’s wildlife-rich Masai Mara National Reserve, features 11 days of basically playing Hemingway without the gun.

35. Chama, New Mexico to Antonito, Colorado

SMT: Narrow gauge train

Between late September and early October, the best fall-color experience on steam-powered wheels is chugging between Chama, New Mexico and Antonito, Colorado on the historic Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.

Board at either end for a full- or half-day chug through Carson and Rio Grande National Forests, old sheep ranches and ghost towns lit up with autumn leaves.

Along the way, you’ll push beyond 10,000 feet at Cumbres Pass — the highest pass reached by rail in the country.

36. Somewhere to wherever you end up, Dhaka, Bangladesh

And all for less than the cost of your coffee at the end of the journey.

SMT: Rickshaw

It’s the journey, not the destination. We’ve all heard that old road trip adage — which has a special meaning while riding in the back of a brightly-adorned rickshaw in Dhaka, the unofficial “Rickshaw Capital of the World.”

Weaving through ridiculous traffic in one of 400,000 cycle-rickshaws at last count, who really cares where you’re actually going? Just savor the ride.

37. Jamestown to Halfmoon Hollow, Saint Helena, United Kingdom

SMT: Quads, glutes and calves

Napoleon, died eight years before “Jacob’s Ladder” was built on St. Helena to transport goods from Jamestown to the top of Ladder Hill.

That means climbing the vertiginous stone stairway’s 699 steps from sea level to 600 feet puts you in an elite group that even an exiled French emperor isn’t part of. Don’t forget to buy your souvenir “completion” certificate at the nearby museum.

39. Lukla to Everest Base Camp, Nepal

SMT: Feet and Lungs

Hop a quick flight from Katmandu to Lukla — home of the world’s most hair-raising landing strip. Then start walking.

At least a week is recommended for the 62-kilometer trek up to Everest Base Camp, winding through Himalayan imagery and mountain villages colored in prayer flags en route to the gates of the world’s highest peak.

Before turning around, wish all those mid-May crazies luck who call this oddly crowded spot just the beginning of their upward journey.

42. Cape Town to Hermanus or further, South Africa

SMT: Car

The most relentlessly pleasant drive on the bottom of the world starts in Cape Town and skirts east along the Western Cape past charming seaside villages, vineyards, beaches and marine mammal overlooks to Hermanus — “South Africa’s Whale Town.”

That’s the quick 120-kilometer version. Add a zero and you can continue this South African coastal odyssey all the way to Durban.

43. The Great Wall, China

SMT: Foot

China’s Great Wall sees about 20,000 daily tourists in its busiest section near Beijing. But that just leaves other magnificent parts of this 21,000-kilometer, two-millennia-in-the-making, not-so-modest masonry project foot-traffic free.

For example, sign up for ICA’s WildWall Extreme trek-a five-day camping trip along 40 kilometers of remote Great Wall in neighboring Hebei Province, and the world’s most wondrous wall was built just for you this week.

44. New Delhi to Agra, India

Define “tour bus” anyway you like, but the roads out of Delhi are so much nicer when someone else has to drive them.

A mere 200 kilometers southeast of this madness takes you to Agra and that checklist-notching date with the Taj Mahal.

45. Scotsdale to Upper Sonoran Desert, Arizona

SMT: Hummer

In Greater Phoenix, one can admire only so much saguaro and roadkill from behind the wheel of a white rented Neon.

The cure: offroading deep into the area’s rugged outback, the Sonoran Desert, at night with an ITT GEN 3 Night Vision Scope when the temperature’s dipped below 120 and the tarantulas, scorpions, wild pigs and Gila Monsters are just waking up.

46. Chamonix, France to Zermatt, Switzerland

Who said skiing was all downhill?

SMT: Skis and crampons

The Haute Route (High Route), Europe’s most famous backcountry ski tour, traverses 120 kilometers of glaciated terrain from Chamonix to Zermatt and has been called the “the hut-to-hut tour to end all hut-to-hut tours” and the “the lifelong dream of fanatical off-piste skiers everywhere.”

47. Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

SMT: Car or foot

Even if you don’t know the Dingle Peninsula yet, you already kind of do. Tucked away on Ireland’s southwest coast in ultra-scenic County Kerry, it packs scores of classic Irish images.

Craggy mountains swaddled in mist. Tilted green hills matted with yellow gorse and lined with old stone walls. Sawtoothed, frothy Atlantic shorelines. An old fellow squinting at you by the side of a quaint back road in a gray tweed cap with his ten million sheep.

The Dingle Peninsula is a microcosm of the Irish coast in one ruggedly stunning package that you can loop around by car in a single day. But make it at least two-or three.

Or over a week, if you have the time and quad muscles to hoof around the peninsula on the 179-kilometer Dingle Way, one of the country’s most spectacular long-distance walking trails.

48. Guadalajara to Amititán, Mexico

SMT: “Tequila Express” train

Most classic weekend road trips are much happier on the way therethan back. The Tequila Express is one notable exception.

You can board in Guadalajara at 10:30am, roll past agave covered hillsides into the village of Amititán (a.k.a. the birthplace of tequila) where you’ll visit some of the world’s oldest tequila distilleries — before returning in a raucous train car full of passengers loaded on tequila, conga-lining to a mariachi band. Salud!

49. Pitesti to Cartisoara, Romania

SMT: Car, motorcycle or (gasp) bicycle

A couple seasons ago, “Top Gear” host Jeremy Clarkson put South-Central European scenic mountain driving on the map by exclaiming, “This is the best road in the world,” while touring Romania’s national route 7C (a.k.a. the Transfagarasan Highway) with an Aston Martin, Ferrari and a Lamborghini.

That’s in spite of the potholes, crumbly hairpins and tempestuous conditions that make this secluded, serpentining 90-kilometer, former military route through gorgeous Carpathian mountainscapes (and right past Vlad the Impaler’s old hilltop digs) undriveable between mid-fall and late spring.

18 Responses to “49 journeys that’ll change your life”

All the silver coloured parts of my royal Enfield thunderbird got rusted due to Mumbai moisture and rains. Suggest any places in Mumbai where I can get all the silver coloured parts re painted with the same look.

Seriously I do not know how to tell them I am just a loser and will amount to nothing for the rest of my life.

I failed first year university and since my GPA was too low they kicked me out for a year. I am pretty sure I have Aspergers which is why I cannot make friends or get a girlfriend. Literally ate every meal alone in the cafeteria for my entire first year of univesity. I lived on student residence yet no one liked me.

I am worthless and literally all I am good at is malware development, website development/design, and playing guitar. I started working as a janitor and this will be all I will ever do for the rest of my life. I live in a house with four girls and no I am not gay just a loser, but I can afford my share of the rent. I will be doing this for the rest of my life while every day after coming home from work I will get high and drink alcohol until the day I decide to kill myself. So how do I tell my parents this?

I’m a 15 yr. old girl (sophomore) and I want to major in becoming an ultrasound technician. I have a few questions:

– my grades aren’t the best and I plan on going to community college for my first two years and I was wondering if this can affect me getting into the major (do you have to have really good grades)
– do all colleges have a field for this or do you have to go to a certain college? I’m planning on going to Cal State LA but I don’t think that they have a major in that there. What colleges around LA or in Cali have a major for ultra sound technician?
-what’s the salary?
– how many year of college do you have to complete?
-what does a ultrasound technician really do? I know the basics and stuff like making sure the baby’s fine but what else?
-is it hard to find a job for this? Are they’re usually many openings?
-is it fun? stressful? worth the pay?
-do you have to take any special classes during college for this certain job?

I know I may not be asking all the right questions but this is what came to mind. I’m not really sure if I want to do this, but it is my first choice. If you have anything more that your like to put down for advice or info feel free too! thanks (:

That is the image that i must write about in an essay…The question asks how we are encouraged to make certain meanings about society through the editors use of conventions such as camera angle..lighting et cetera.

What does this poster say about man? What does the editor want us to make meaning of?

I am really befuddled!!!

Im not asking anyone to write the essay!
If someone could just come up with some phrases of meanings they managed to make so i could use that as a building point, that would be awesome!

I’m 15 6 foot 200 pounds and quite good looking but I’m fat
Loads of stuff in my life is pi**ing me off, My weight how I look, why Im so shy, why sometimes I have no balls, Why I can’t never get things right first time, why I’m so nice.
I’ve had troubles with girls, I’ve liked 2 girls and really liked in the past 2 1/2 months but had to move on because they like somebody else. I can never get a girlfriend. Im just the “nice” or “cute” one and that’s all I am.. No girls mates want my number or phone me, unlike all my other mates!ARGGG
I hate the way i say something then realise there was no point doing or it was the wrong thing.I’m fed up with where I go every boring weekend with friends. I’ve got tones of GCSE stuff.
I’m not like depressed, and I’m on top of everything.
I’ve put myself on a diet, already I’ve lost 4 pounds in two weeks, and I’m occupied in my free time.
Now I’m not depressed I just know who I am
Any help, guidance, advice or wisdom would be good please
Thanks

I would definitely agree with number 3- The Inca Trail. You can see many fascinating things along the way and the sense of accomplishment when you go through the original Inca entrance to Machu Picchu is unreal. There are also many other treks you can do in the same area, each with their own rewards. A trek in Peru is unique as there are a range of ecological systems and climates through any route. You can spend one day walking through imposing mountain passes and the next day you will descend into the Amazon rain forest. It is truly incredible!